This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on May 4, 2026 - May 10, 2026 with the title "Three individuals charged in relation to Aries Telecoms’ RM400 mil loan granted by BPMB in 2012"

THE name Aries Telecoms (M) Bhd may not ring a bell for many ordinary Malaysians but that’s not the case for Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Bhd (BPMB), and its former senior executives in particular.

The company borrowed RM400 million from the development financial institution (DFI) in 2012 to build a fibre-optic network in Malaysia — the domestic leg of the Vasseti South Asia Network, once pitched as a regional telecommunications game changer. The portion in Malaysia alone was estimated to cost RM1.3 billion. An additional RM400 million in financing was to be secured from Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank).

Zavarco plc is the corporate guarantor and former Aries director Zulizman Zainal Abidin is the personal guarantor for the RM400 million loan from BPMB.

The project was said to be aligned with Putrajaya’s broadband agenda then. However, it failed to take off and the RM400 million loan from BPMB turned sour.

Aries defaulted on the loan in 2018. The DFI then found that the fibre-optic infrastructure was never fully constructed, raising the question of where the RM400 million cash had gone.  

Lim Keng Peo of Deloitte Corporate Solutions Sdn Bhd, the receiver and manager appointed by the DFI, found in a probe that several individuals in their various capacities had conspired in redirecting the loan Aries obtained to other parties.

Based on the findings, BPMB’s former president and group managing director, the late Datuk Zafer Hashim, waived the conditions required for the loan disbursements. 

Despite BPMB initiating civil lawsuits against the conspirators, no criminal action was taken against anyone until eight years later.

Fast forward to today, three individuals — Datuk Ranjeet Singh Sidhu; Shailen Popatlal, also known as Shailen Gajera; and Wong Chee Keong — have been charged in relation to the RM400 million loan from BPMB.

Former Aries director Ranjeet was charged in February with corruption and forged document offences linked to an RM8 million inducement and fraudulent documentation used to secure the loan facility.

He was charged under Section 471 of the Penal Code, and if found guilty, could be fined, sentenced to imprisonment for up to two years, or both.

Ranjeet allegedly produced a “joint completion guarantee” dated June 21, 2012 between V Telecoms Bhd and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd to secure the loan from BPMB. The falsified documents were submitted at the bank’s head office on June 29, 2012.

He was also charged with the more serious offence of giving an RM8 million bribe to secure the loan.

Ranjeet, on behalf of Aries, allegedly offered RM8 million to Zafer through an intermediary, Datuk Noorusa’adah Othman, for the approval and subsequent disbursement of the RM400 million loan. Zafer died in 2022 in London shortly after BPMB filed the lawsuits.

Ranjeet was accused of committing the offence at Maybank, Jalan Maarof, Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur, on July 2, 2012 through Noorusa’adah, a businesswoman.

The second charge was made under Section 16(b)(A) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009 and is punishable under Section 24(1) of the same law.

If convicted, Ranjeet faces a jail term of up to 20 years and a fine of at least five times the bribe amount.

Shailen was charged in both the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court and the Shah Alam Sessions Court.

In Shah Alam, the businessman was charged with seven counts of money laundering involving RM128.34 million, allegedly transferred from Paneagle Holdings Bhd to his Hong Kong company, Primawin Ltd.

Peneagle Holdings owned a direct 9% stake in Aries, while Primawin held an effective 19.8% equity interest via its shareholding in Open Fibre Sdn Bhd, Aries’ 91% shareholder.

The charges relate to transactions made between July 2012 and November 2013, whereby funds of Paneagle Infratek Sdn Bhd and Paneagle Holdings at Alliance Bank were allegedly transferred in multiple tranches — ranging from RM2.3 million to RM43.06 million — to an HSBC Hong Kong account belonging to Primawin.

The three transfers on Nov 20, 2013 alone exceeded RM111 million, while earlier transfers in mid-2012 totalled about RM17.3 million. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of RM5 million, up to five years’ jail, or both.

In the KL charge, Shailen is accused of abetting former Aries director Ranjeet in using a forged “joint completion guarantee” — purportedly between V Telecoms and Huawei Technologies — to support the application to borrow RM400 million from BPMB. The charge falls under the Penal Code and carries up to two years’ jail, a fine or both.

He pleaded not guilty and claimed trial before Sessions Court judge Awang Kerisnada Awang Mahmud.

Last week, former Silver Ridge Holdings Bhd director Wong Chee Keong, who currently resides in Australia, was charged with allegedly submitting a false declaration related to an engineering project to deceive a BPMB bank officer.

Wong, 73, was charged with cheating an assistant manager of the bank’s technical services division by producing a fake declaration form dated Aug 13, 2012, in which he has interest, with regard to Silver Ridge’s independent checking engineer project, in order to confuse the company.

Silver Ridge’s role is especially significant because independent verification was supposed to assure BPMB that the fibre routes were actually being built.

There were startling discrepancies between certified routes and physical progress. Paneagle Holdings’ invoices and Silver Ridge’s reports became key fault lines in BPMB’s allegation that hundreds of millions were paid out for inflated, unsupported or fictitious work, according to the court document related to BPMB’s earlier lawsuits. In some instances, Aries was paying vastly above market rates for infrastructure components, while Deloitte initiated a probe and allegedly found payment vouchers concealing diversions to related parties such as BVS Trinity.  

Wong is alleged to have committed the offence at the BPMB office on Aug 13, 2012. He has been charged under Section 18 of the MACC Act and is punishable under Section 24 of the act, and stands to face a maximum jail term of 20 years, or five times the amount of gratification.

It is learnt that Ranjeet and Shailen may have a joint trial as the offences are interlinked. The prosecution in the case will put in an application to the court to have their charges heard together.

As for Wong, the prosecution will decide in the future.

In June 2022, BPMB filed a fraud suit seeking at least RM564.99 million from 30 defendants, alleging conspiracy, bribery, unlawful means and concealment. The suit was sprawling and named former executives, shareholders, contractors and related entities. It was effectively BPMB’s attempt not merely to recover losses but also to trace where the money went.

Yet in a major legal setback, the High Court struck out BPMB’s lawsuit this year. The court held that BPMB lacked locus standi and that the issues had effectively already been dealt with through an earlier 2018 recovery suit against Aries, Zavarco plc and guarantors.

In essence, the judge ruled that misuse of loan proceeds was a matter for Aries as borrower, and BPMB could not relitigate through a broader fraud framing where prior proceedings had already occupied similar legal ground.

Zavarco plc, formerly known as Vasseti (UK) plc, wholly owns Zavarco Bhd which shares the same registered address as Paneagle Holdings, Paneagle Sdn Bhd, VCB, Open Fibre, Orient Telecoms, BVS Trinity and Aries at No 28, Tingkat 3, Lorong Medan Tuanku Satu, Kuala Lumpur.

In the earlier lawsuit filed in 2018, which escalated to the Federal Court, BPMB won a RM400 million summary judgment. This led to Zavarco plc being liquidated and a receiver appointed to manage Aries.

The judgment also stated that Aries, as the owner of the money, was harmed by the loan’s misuse, not the bank.

BPMB “has no right, having satisfied itself by obtaining (and defending) the summary judgment”, the judge ruled. It is understood that the DFI plans to appeal the decision.

Last week, the Court of Appeal dismissed a motion by Aries’ guarantors Zavarco plc and Zulizman to disqualify Messrs Lee Hishammuddin Allen & Gledhill and its counsel, Kumar Kanagasingam, from representing BPMB in their counterclaim against the bank.

A three-member bench led by Datuk Lim Chong Fong unanimously dismissed Zavarco plc and Zulizman’s motion and ruled that the application filed under Rule 28(b) of the Legal Profession Act does not apply to the facts pleaded. Rule 28(b) states that a lawyer cannot appear in an appeal if they were a witness on an important disputed fact in the lower court, but the court found this condition was not met.

The guarantors filed the motion against the law firm and Kumar, arguing there could be a conflict of interest as they might become witnesses in the appeal of the August 2022 suit to set aside the 2019 summary judgment and seek damages.

BPMB obtained a summary judgment against Zavarco plc and Zulizman on May 9, 2019, after Aries failed to repay its RM400 million loan.

Zavarco plc and Zulizman filed a counterclaim against BPMB, but it was struck out by the High Court. However, in November 2021, the Court of Appeal upheld the summary judgment but reinstated their counterclaim. The Federal Court later rejected their final attempt to challenge the judgment in April 2022.

Following the reinstatement of their counterclaim, Zavarco plc and Zulizman filed another lawsuit in August 2022 to set aside the 2019 judgment and seek damages, but the High Court struck it out in August 2023. They have since filed an appeal.

Zavarco plc and Zulizman’s appeals over the counterclaim, and their new suit to overturn the 2019 summary judgment and seek damages will be heard at the Court of Appeal on June 23.

With criminal charges proffered on these three individuals, information on how the money was spent and where it was funnelled to is expected to be revealed during the trials.

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